I was impressed with Dowling yesterday. They're very big and physical for a high school football team. How do you think they would stack up against premier teams across the country? It'd be nice to see them schedule a big time out of state opponent in the near future.
Where would you rank Dowling on the national stage?
- Thread starter BigDan21
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Unless the state of Iowa grants them a special exception, scheduling an out of state opponent isn't allowed.
Teams can determine who they schedule for non-district games though. If they have to go through ISHAA to schedule an out of state matchup I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard
If you've ever watched these high school games on ESPN/U and other sports channels then you can assume how it would go because even with our state's best at the highest level, it is night and day.......
Yeah. I'm not suggesting Dowling could compete with the blue chip schools like the IMGs, Bishop Gormans, St John Bosco, or Centennials of high school football. But I do think they could compete with teams somewhere in the 25-100 ranking. There's actually been some years where Dowling has been ranked up there. Would be very interesting to watch. I'm also a big fan of the idea of teams being able to select out of their state playoffs for a 16 team invitation based national playoff.
this is all conjecture obviously but I think they could probably hang with midwestern teams but once you play teams from Florida or California, the talent level becomes too much.
I don't know why Iowa wouldn't allow teams to do this (don't know how many other states keep everything in-state). It would be a chance for our state to showcase the best we have to offer or at the very least use it as a measuring stick to see how we compare.
I remember the Ames basketball team doing this back when they had Barnes and McDermott and got to take on a fairly good Illinois team. (though basketball scheduling is a bit different than football)
I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard that so many Iowa teams that border IL were playing IL teams for non-district games that centrally located Iowa teams were having trouble filling out their schedules. So, the state started scheduling Iowa teams against only other Iowa teams, even in non-district. It's been this way for at least two cycles now. I'm not saying it's right or wrong; that's just the explanation I've heard.
I believe Dowling has played out of state competition in the past. I recall an uncle telling me about either his 1983 or 1984 team taking on Rockhurst High School out of Kansas City. The Maroons were killed.
Believe they played once in 1982 at the old Valley Stadium and yes, Rockhurst won handily,
Gobigdumb,
If by "killed" you mean winning by 4 after scoring with a minute left, then you are right, Missouri state champs Rochurst "killed" an average Dowling team.
In the words of the immortal Slim Pickens, Rockhurst danced around like a bunch of Kansas City ******s. Methinks you need a better example.
If by "killed" you mean winning by 4 after scoring with a minute left, then you are right, Missouri state champs Rochurst "killed" an average Dowling team.
In the words of the immortal Slim Pickens, Rockhurst danced around like a bunch of Kansas City ******s. Methinks you need a better example.
Honestly, in high school sports where the talent level of your team can change drastically year-to-year, is any example beyond five years relevant?
I know that Waterloo East used to schedule out of state games back in the 60's and 70's when they were a powerhouse. As for more recent out of state games Decorah used to play Prairie du Chien up until about 10 years ago every year, and I know a lot of SE Iowa teams went into Missouri to play.
Hate to seem like a hater but I spoke to a college coach in another midwestern state who said, while Dowling is the best program in the state of Iowa, they would get clobbered by fellow parochial programs around the Midwest and it wouldn't even be close. Dowling has three to four D1 prospects on their squad. Some of these big programs around the nation start 11 D1 prospects.
Some of the best teams have a ton of D1 talent. These are usually magnet programs that recruit and bring in people from all over the surrounding area, or even the country. IMG the #2 team nationally and has like 30+ guys with D1 offers. Other top 25 teams may have like 10-15, but once you get out of the top 25 I think there's a bit of a drop off. I think a reasonable matchup for Dowling would be to start with a respectable but not "dominant" Texas or California school. Like Long Beach Poly. Would be a very interesting matchup and I'm sure ESPN would be happy to televise it.
Agree with most posters. On the national stage, Dowling would get killed by a top 20 USA Today ranked power. They'd do fine against the run-of-the-mill, pretty good out of state schools. The big Texas, Florida, and California power schools often send their entire starting lineups to college and university programs. Have you ever watched some of these schools play on TV? I saw a school in Arizona with 6,000 students maul (by 30 points) a really good Catholic school that only had 1500 or so kids! Whether they are public or private the big-time national high school programs attract kids from a wide area around their towns. I went to a high school game in Texas once and besides the fact that the stadium held ten thousand fans, the teams were not only big, but really, really fast. Much speedier game than in Iowa. It was like watching arena football, but with eleven players on each side. Of course, the greatest of all Iowa teams could win an occasional game against one of these powers, but not regularly. Years ago, when they were larger, Wahlert used to play Catholic and public teams from the Rockford, Chicago and eastern Wisconsin area and win their fair share of games, but I think we are talking top Iowa teams against top out of state (big, big schools.) Against most similar size schools in similar situations Iowa would do well against their peers, but not against the biggies that specialize in great football. We're not talking poor inner-city schools here; the powers are the huge suburban and traditionally strong large city schools where talent is plentiful and boundaries are fuzzy. .
Very few Iowa teams have played outside the state in recent history. Decorah played Prairie du Chein WI and Mount Pleasant played Quincy IL until the state took over scheduling. The MAC has ten teams, so no room for a non-conference game against Moline/Rock Island schools.
